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Lady
The Lady, born Dorotea Senjak, was the ruler of the North for centuries, first alongside her husband the Dominator, but later on her own. She was an extremely powerful sorceress, a brilliant tactician, and a natural leader. After losing her magic she joined the Black Company and dropped her honorific, becoming simply Lady. She had a hand in the history of the Black Company for decades: beginning when she hired them to serve alongside her Imperial forces in the war against the Rebel armies of the Circle of Eighteen, and ending with the defeat of the dark goddess Kina. Early Life The Lady was one of four daughters of the Baron Senjak. She claimed that her mother was the basis of the Sleeping Beauty legend and that her father took no pains seeking a cure for her ailment. Rather he was content to let her sleep as she bore him daughters. She wondered once if it were a curse that the women in her family were destined to spend much of their adult lives in enchanted slumbers. Little is known about her childhood and the veracity of the information that was uncovered is questionable. Her sister, who became the Taken known as Soulcatcher, told Croaker once that The Lady murdered her twin sister. However, the genealogies that Croaker and Tracker translated state that "Dorotea" was the youngest of the daughters and did not mention a twin. Later information revealed that the histories were half-truths, promoted by The Lady and Soulcatcher themselves. Sometime in her youth she married the sorcerer who would become the Dominator. It was a political alliance and a loveless marriage that was never consummated. Together they engineered the Taking of ten powerful sorcerers who became their most powerful servants. The period of the Domination was remembered as an age of evil when the Dominator enforced his will on his subjects with The Lady by his side. None could stand against their might until the White Rose led a successful rebellion against them. Even then their power was so great that they could not be wholly destroyed. Instead they were locked away in the magically guarded Barrowland in the north of their former empire. Resurrection and New Empire Four centuries after the end of the Domination a wizard named Bomanz attempted to make contact with The Lady to learn from her. He thought he knew her true name to use as a bargaining chip, as well as a safeguard. Unaware that she was subtly guiding his effort the whole time, he accidentally freed her from her imprisonment. She released the Ten Who Were Taken, but left her husband trapped in his grave. She easily recaptured her old empire and expanded to new territories as well. It was around this time she constructed the Tower at Charm. Eventually a new rebellion rose up around the banner of the White Rose. A group of wizards who called themselves the Circle of Eighteen decided that together, they had the ability to take on The Lady and the Taken. The fighting grew fiercer and the Circle managed some impressive victories over the Imperials. Seeking to ally with the Jewel Cities in the south, The Lady sent Soulcatcher to Beryl as her legate. Soulcatcher sought to gain the service of Beryl's navy, but ended up with a much greater prize. The Black Company, last of the free companies of Khatovar, was under the employ of the Syndic of Beryl, though they wished to be free of their contract. Soulcatcher, never one to let an opportunity slip away, engineered the assassination of the Syndic, securing both the commission of the Black Company, and the support of Beryl through a new puppet Syndic who was loyal to The Lady's Empire. With The Black Company supporting her army, The Lady again began to secure her hold on her empire. After several impressive victories, including the slaying of Raker, one of the Circle, The Lady began to take notice of the Company. Especially of the physician, Croaker, who in his spare time had been writing romantic fantasies about The Lady herself. After the Company stumbled into a cache of rebel intelligence that documented the betrayal of one of her own Taken, the Limper, Lady decided to reward the Company. She chose two of their members, Croaker and the newest recruit, Raven, and had them lay an ambush for the Limper and the Rebel general Whisper. The trap was successful. Raven was rewarded with the chance to slay the Limper, who had engineered Raven's own downfall. Croaker was rewarded when The Lady herself arrived. After being subjected to her Eye which laid his mind bare to her, he was permitted to see her perform the Rite of Taking on Whisper, making her the first person to be Taken in centuries, and the first of the The Lady's Taken. The Limper was flown back to Charm, when none who were offered the chance could bring themselves to finish him. After this, The Lady shifted focus to the far east of her realm. The Black Company suffered a few defeats and seemed to be in a perpetual state of retreat towards Charm. The whole of the Rebel army dogged their steps. Once her forces had been gathered at Charm, The Lady's strategy became evident. She meant to make one final battle to rid her empire of the Rebel once and for all. Using information gleaned from Croaker's mind, she also realized that several of her Taken were plotting against her. Before the battle began in earnest, the Black Company managed to capture the two newest members of the Circle, the newlyweds Feather and Journey. They were the next to be enslaved as the newest members of the Lady's Taken. ]] The battle began in force, and Croaker was chosen to document it all as he saw it, by The Lady's side. He wrote later that he thought her biggest fear was history portraying her inaccurately, should she lose. Her gambit was a success though, and through the battle she rid herself of nearly the entirety of the Rebel forces and apparently all the original Ten Who Were Taken, including Soulcatcher who was decapitated by Croaker. The Dominator Awakens After the Battle of Charm there was little resistance to the Empire any longer. The highly decorated Black Company hunted remnants of the Rebel army, and continued to stamp out the fires of rebellion where they could find them. But peace was not destined to last. The Lady received troubling news and a plea for help from the ruler of Juniper, a port city outside the borders of the empire. Suspicious of her husband's involvement in this trouble, the Lady ordered the Black Company to the Barrowland. A select few trusted members, including Croaker whom The Lady had not forgotten, were flown to Juniper to investigate the mysterious Black Castle. With the help of the new Taken, and some locals, the Company was able to confirm The Lady's fears. The Black Castle was a doorway the Dominator meant to use to break back into the world. The Lady traveled to Juniper and led an attack on the castle. The Dominator was foiled, but not without cost to The Lady. One of the new Taken, Feather, was slain and the entire Black Company deserted The Lady. They set a trap for the Limper, who The Lady had rehabilitated years earlier. The Limper was dismembered and left for dead once again, and the Company escaped with a mute young girl named Darling, considered by many to be the reborn White Rose, into the Plain of Fear. After years of calm, The Lady began amassing her forces on the border of the Plain of Fear. She had several new Taken by this time, and all of their armies prepared to destroy the Black Company and the White Rose at any cost. Their conflict was left unresolved due to the rise of a bigger evil, the return of the Dominator. The two sides joined forces and managed to defeat him at great costs. No longer being on opposed sides, Croaker and Lady could finally share their love. Books of the South The lovers decided to leave the Empire, but Lady needed some time to set up a successor and make sure that things wouldn't fall apart, leaving Croaker to wait and worry whether she would come at all. Lady brings a wagon filled with magical artifacts, as well as a troop of her personal guard and they set south for Khatovar. In Gea-Xle, Lady meets up with Shapeshifter and Lisa Daele Bowalk, who agree to aid the Company on their quest south. Lady begins to train in secret to build her weakened power up. Croaker gets suspicious and calls her out on their boat ride down the river's first channel. They make it to Taglios after battling with the Howler and his minions on the river, and meet up with Blade and friends on their way through the second channel. Then it turned out that armed resistance and the troubles weren't a coincidence, but were caused by a new enemy. The Company's military expertise was requested by the rulers of the land. After several conflicts, Lady decided to add some psychological warfare tactics to their arsenal, designing some terryfying armor sets. Lady and Croaker suit up in new armor in which she is known as Lifetaker and Croaker is Widowmaker. Lady ensorcels their armor and mounts with her growing power and they set off to Battle of Dejagore. Unbeknownst to Lady her costume resembles the goddess Kina slightly. They confess their love to each other and head into battle. The battle goes awry as Croaker is shot by an arrow and knocked from his horse. Murgen takes Croaker's Widowmaker armor and pretends to be their Captain. Lady is left to witness the entire event. She battles fiercely towards Croaker, violently assaulting all in her path. She enters a void of skill an empty state of mind where she was a wind of death and struck fear into all those who came near her or thought of confronting Lifetaker. As she fought on her mount towards her beloved Croaker; her panic overwhelmed her. Her focus broke and she fought urgently, lacking her former skill. The enemy sensed her change and pushed her from her mount. Thought to be dead, she was then buried underneath corpses. The Books of the Glittering Stone ]] Lady soon escaped the abandoned battleground and found a hollow, sleeping there for the night. She awakened hearing a patrol of two Shadowlanders on her behind. She struggled to form a Hammer of Light and violently beats her victims. She met two men, Narayan Singh and friend, who claimed to have stumbled upon her. They also claimed to be her guards for the night and they escorted her to safety. Back in Taglios Lady used the skills of Narayan to rebuild the Black Company, who along with Blade was made a leaders in her militia. Singh showed her his assassination techniques and also involved her in the dark rituals of his cult, which some time later proved to be a poor choice on her behalf. Meanwhile more problems needed resolution, as the religious leaders tried to eliminate Lady by informing her that custom in Taglios is to commit suicide when your husband dies. The priests abused the fact that Lady is not a follower of their customs and profaned her for not following custom as the other dead soldiers' wives did. Guided and assisted by Narayan, Lady sneaked into the priests' camp and killed the head priest by strangulation, as demanded by Naryan's cult traditions. Later Lady had a meeting with the Taglian prince, Prabrindah Drah, in the Gardens. She informed him that she had taken the Black Company's charter over and would absolutely receive payment for their service when she were finished, reminding him of the penalties of not paying. After the meeting she had several more confrontations with the religious leaders of Taglios. In the end Lady grew tired of their meddling and designed a plan to get rid of them. She had of the major priests of all three Taglian religions gather in a city square, where they were ambushed and killed by her soldiers, thus solidifying her hold on the city and the Black Company's charter. But eliminating the religious leaders didn't bring the desired calm for long. Trusting Narayan Singh and his Stranglers proved to be wrong at that point, as as soon as her daughter was born, they attacked the palace and kidnapped the girl. The Company and Lady spent several years chasing the Stranglers and fighting the remaining Shadowmasters trying to get the girl back. The last of them to fall was Longshadow, but the victory wasn't really sweet, as Lady and other members of the Company were outsmarted and imprisoned in stasis field by Soulcatcher in the Plain of Glittering Stone. Years later Lady was freed and witnessed the fall of the Stranglers. The final reunion with her daughter ended in tragedy, as the girl attempted to strangle her. Croaker was late to intervene and Lady was left in a coma. Many Names Ardath or Dorotea Lady was one of four sisters, Dorotea, Credence, Sylith, and Ardath, the daughters of Baron Senjak. Dorotea may have been the eldest – she was older than Ardath and older than either Credence or Sylith, perhaps both. She may have also been a twin, though that sister died before she was old enough to marry. While the passing of centuries obscured their history, the sisters themselves were the real source of the confusion. In order to hide their true names they decided at a young age to switch their names. The Lady, born Dorotea Senjak, was known to the world as Ardath Senjak. Soulcatcher, born Ardath, in turn took the name Dorotea. The switch was extremely successful. At the Battle of Juniper the Dominator tried to use The Lady's true name, but was wrong when he named her Ardath. Later, at the Battle of the Barrowland, he incorrectly guessed Sylith, which surprised Croaker since he also thought Sylith was her true name. The Limper named her Credence Senjak and suffered gravely for his mistake. Finally Silent said her true name, correct only by process of elimination. "The" honorific In the North, while she was one of the most powerful sorcerers alive, Dorotea Senjak was known as ''The Lady. Later, after she lost her powers and joined the Black Company, she dropped the honorific and became simply Lady. Category:Characters Category:Black Company Category:Captains of the Black Company Category:Lieutenants of the Black Company Category:Annalists of the Black Company Category:Wizards of the Black Company